Posted by Marc Morano

Early fallout includes canceled science missions and potential gaps in long-running climate records, while research budgets could take a hit in the long run.

Rush Limbaugh: "The deep state extends very deeply. And the American people did not elect a bunch of health experts that we don’t know. We didn’t elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know."

"This country is shut down. It’s just incredible. And I’ll tell you, folks, it has been scary to me, it has been frightening to me to see how easy it has been to do this...it isn’t gonna be the same country." 

On coronavirus stimulus package: "Why even have budgets? We don’t have $2 trillion to be giving away to people...We don’t have the money. We have a national debt of 22, $23 trillion. We don’t have this money. We’re printing this money."

"You remember how everybody was fit to be tied when Obama had a $787 billion stimulus? That wasn’t even $1 trillion. That led to the creation of the Tea Party." 

"Instead of ‘flattening a curve’, rational leaders (like Beijing’s) try to turn the curve into a cliff...

"If people were led to believe that 1-2 °C of warming was basically the end of the world, is it surprising that they're absolutely terrified of a new disease that has the potential to kill a few million old and sick people? ...

The existential threat posed by coronavirus – or at least, our irrationality towards it – is greater than the climate threat (though still very small). Westerners who haven't seen any real threats for a long time have developed a condition – termed "affluenflammation" by the American musician Remy –  which is a pathological habit of inflating negligible threats. Many people will conclude that the crisis was exciting, and try to kickstart a repetition. The curfew is likely to reduce CO2 emissions this year, so climate activists may try for similar results in the future.

Maybe people will realize that the reaction to the coronavirus was disproportionate."

Greenland: "Most of the ice loss is the result of receding glacier fronts, but the DMI confirmed in Nov 2018 that glaciers have more or less maintained their area since 2012. There is therefore no evidence of accelerating ice loss since 2003.

The claim that the Greenland icecap has been losing ice at a faster rate than in the 1990s is true, but it is also a red herring and has no bearing on future rates of loss. In 2003, scientists reported that Greenland had cooled significantly between 1958 and 2001. Unsurprisingly during this period of cooling ice loss slowed markedly. Since 2001, temperatures have recovered to levels generally seen in the 1930s and 40s (Fig 2), with a resultant increase in ice loss."

"Globally, sea levels have been rising steadily at a rate of about 2mm a year since the late 19thC, with a slow down between the 1960s and 90s. And, as the IPCC’s latest Assessment Report pointed out, the recent rate of rise has been similar to that between 1920 and 1950."

Morano: 'If you like life under coronavirus fears and government action, then you'll love life under the climate agenda.'